


lies^3

by Zekkass



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Angst, Gestalt (Transformers), Lies, M/M, Multi, Other, Spark Sexual Interfacing, Transformers Spark Bonds, Trauma, Unethical Experimentation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2019-11-28 03:37:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18202997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zekkass/pseuds/Zekkass
Summary: After the capture of the Decepticons, particularly Shockwave, the Autobot Intelligence Agency is a mess. Nothing Longarm Prime ever did in office can be trusted - and so, the Science Division has an idea on how to extract information from Shockwave.All it requires is for Cliffjumper and Blurr to bind themselves to the monster.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by conversations with Arco and Zeenovos, which led to these: [Arco's sketches!](https://twitter.com/9arco95/status/1108934239100166146)
> 
> This will probably be a medium length fic when it's done? Right now it's just a WIP I'm scraping out inbetween bouts of trigonometry panic. But I'm working on it! And I want kudos to help spur me to work on it - ahaha, this isn't a hostage fic situation like you'd see on fanfic.net back in the day, I promise. This'll get done even if y'all ignore it.
> 
> Details: set after the ending of TFA, mentions a failed prison break by Megatron but never goes into details. Blurr was found and revived and is still traumatized by being crushed.

Blurr out and out runs from the room after the entire proposal is laid out. Cliffjumper wishes he could go with him, spark an ugly twist in his chassis. His rank is undeserved, a tainted legacy from Longarm Prime - _Shockwave_ \- and everyone knows it. Including the mech sitting across from him, expression appropriately grave.

There’s a smug smirk somewhere in there, and Cliffjumper knows it. He pushes the offered datapad back across his desk and shakes his head.

“No. He’s an accomplished liar. Even if this did work, there’s no way to guarantee that he can’t slip a lie past us.”

“Lies cannot exist in spark-to-spark bonds,” the mech recites, so textbook Cliffjumper wants to punch him just for that.

“You’re asking both me and Blurr to risk compromising ourselves so thoroughly we can’t be trusted for anything! Why should we agree?”

The answer comes too late; Cliffjumper’s already figured it out: _neither he nor Blurr are trusted. Shockwave’s compromised them already._

//

“We don’t have a choice essentially I see of course no one would trust us we trusted _him_ for so long they’re trying to make some good out of the situation but I can’t do it Cliffjumper I can’t let him into my spark.”

“Yeah,” Cliffjumper says, short, just that. He knows how Blurr feels. This isn’t just a meeting with Shockwave, or an interrogation, it’s more than that. Spark-to-spark contact, forever. He’ll be in their thoughts and influencing everything, and if the three of them can’t run a tight ship they’ll all be scrapped as a failed experiment.

Shockwave’s already killed Blurr once. He’s moving in tight circles in Cliffjumper’s office, occasionally taking himself in a circuit around the room and yeah, Cliffjumper knows. The room itself still belongs to Shockwave, no matter that he’s scrubbed and scanned the place multiple times to make sure there’s no trace of his spy devices.

How many times has he slammed that door open to bring some complaint to Longarm? How many times has Longarm greeted them from this very desk?

Everything Longarm Prime ever taught him tells him this: this is going to happen.

“Do,” he starts, halting, hating the question. “You think he meant for this to happen?”

“It’s not unlikely he did like to plan for every contingency do you think there’s a chance he put the idea for this into someone’s audial - you do he’s going to welcome us back as if we’d never left.”

Blurr stops, positioned perfectly in front of the desk. He takes a step forward, movements unusually slow as he puts both hands on the desk.

He leans forward. Cliffjumper holds still, meeting his gaze.

“We’ve never shared sparks Cliffjumper we need to know before we let him in.”

Something in Cliffjumper relaxes, now that he knows it’s a done deal. If there had been a way out, Blurr would have thought of it and long before he ever did.

“I’m willing.”

Chest-plates slide open, Blurr comes over the desk instead of around it, and Cliffjumper has to stand up to meet him in the most intimate of joinings.

Blurr’s hands on his shoulders and his back, his hands on Blurr’s thighs.

There is only helpless love and anger in their sparks, nothing new to surprise each other with. They’ve known each other for a long time, survived a war and a peace both and where Blurr is fast Cliffjumper is angry and what more is there to know?

This is a new step but they’ll take it together - 

And Cliffjumper hates how neither one of them really _want_ to get away from Shockwave, as Blurr trembles as the walls close in again and they’re so screwed.

//

“In light of Megatron’s recent failed escape attempt, stronger measures will be taken - particularly for you.”

Shockwave looks at his captor, curious to the point of silence. Anything they do will be nothing compared to his lord’s torment in isolation.

“Secure him,” the Autobot orders. It’s an oft-repeated sequence for his interrogations - his cuffs are magnetized, his frame stretched out as much as it can be in this little cell, and his captors prepare their electric prods and chains.

This time he isn’t taken to an interrogation chamber. This time he’s strapped to a table in what looks like a laboratory, and no one talks to him.

Hope rises in his spark: if they’re preparing to operate him, that can only mean one of a few courses, particularly if they want his information, and his own security measures will prevent them from lobotomizing him. Therefore - 

Therefore - 

_He hopes they’ve chosen the right Autobots._

//


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny chapters? Heresy, or so I thought until this fic. This'll let me post more often! Enjoy!

The pain is asomatic, his fear mounting. Successful alterations have taken him so much closer to Shockwave - his influence over this reeks. They’re playing into his claws, as always.

Blurr had reacted poorly to the operation, displaying a hitherto unknown resistance to stasis. Cliffjumper had heard the screaming from his own table and endured, wishing he could break the restraints - wishing instead of acting.

Longarm would be proud.

And his frame hurts, pain signals at odds with his own scans. He’s _fine._

The final step is to let the technicians transfer half of Shockwave’s spark into his spark chamber and keep it steady long enough for him to merge with Blurr.

 _Why split it?_ \- To destabilize it long enough to join onto their sparks, making Shockwave a part of them instead of a third spark wedged in. To spare them the pain of the initial split. To hurt a Decepticon who’s killed so many innocents.

They won’t get to listen to Shockwave’s screams: the splitting will take place after the spark’s been extracted.

 _Will he be sane?_ \- What will that matter, as long as they can control him?

Cliffjumper digs grooves into his own arms as he waits, spark exposed.

Two technicians have their special container held between them, moving in tandem as they transport _his_ spark to Cliffjumper.

It’s a dark red flecked with yellow, its light flickering in angry waves, its edges jagged with blue sparks. Shockwave’s raging, and Cliffjumper refuses to run as that explosive is brought into his most intimate - 

Systems and programming are nothing in the face of pure whirling essence.

Shockwave fills his lines and rewrites him and claws through all of his armor, his scream echoing, half of himself missing - Cliffjumper’s vocalizer shorts as he falls to his knees, the pain unbearable and the presence so welcomed and feared and - 

Hands grab him and lift him up and shove him into - 

“Destabilizing! Hurry!”

\- Blurr clings and Cliffjumper cannot see his optics, lost in Shockwave.

The pain

Whole

The line isn’t clear, it’s Blurr and Cliffjumper his new boundary his new prison

From the spark new lines of coding unfurl, conveyed through technology no one understands, massive amounts of information that should be impossible transferred in astroseconds, a person appears in the new form, the frame transformed to match the spark and Shockwave looks at his claws, folded out of the frames of his - gestaltmates, now.

Nanites shiver and color spreads on his frame, and he looks at the faces of terrified technicians and determined guards and weapons leveled at him. The lives of his gestaltmates are nothing to them, nothing - 

So _easy_ to understand what they want, with a cursory look through their memories.

Shockwave crouches, claws upturned. No threatening moves. None. Let him feel his way through his own satisfaction and relief and possessive joy - and the tangled mass of hatred/love his gestaltmates carry for him.

The sheer effect he’s had on them pleases him immensely, enough to trust them - 

they come apart to a wild clattering on the floor, and Cliffjumper curls into a ball, his vocalizer spitting static as he struggles to be himself again.

Blurr begins to scream again, and that - now Cliffjumper seizes control of himself to crawl to Blurr, hugging him, but he doesn’t know what to do except bury Blurr’s cries into his neck.

//


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- headcanons about Blurr's death galore  
> \- hooray I can write despite intense math anxiety!

Where has Blurr been? Since he died. Since Shockwave trapped him in corridors he thought he knew, crushed him and life as a mangled frame carrying a spark is reductive. Memories don’t work when you’re just a spark, sparks are personalities and emotions and everything that elevates them above automatons.

Blurr’s memories are not the originals. The frame he’s wearing now is not his original either, a rebuilt custom that matches his original specs except of course now for the alterations for the gestalt.

But his memories. Even with all of the correct emotional tags applied, his personality snuggling up to them and seizing information until he’s himself again - they are not the originals and he verifies them over and over, cross-checking and referencing information and when he was in the first days of being alive again he spent time plugged into the public database comparing timelines.

His death at Shockwave’s hands is a reconstruction, mostly guess-work and he doesn’t even know _where_ he died, only that it was Shockwave and somewhere with enough force to compress him.

Tracking Shockwave’s moves and the timeline and he thinks he died on Cybertron but that doesn’t line up with his assignment on Sol-3, but seeing as his backups were made before he started on his mission he isn’t even sure if he _was_ on Sol-3, if it wasn’t another lie wrapped in a lie, working for Longarm Prime.

Direct access to Cliffjumper Prime’s memories and information has filled in a lot of holes and that’s part of why he trusts him so much, that he’s shared that much information freely with no games no pitying looks just understanding.

Now he has new memories tucked into his frame and he can’t even access them he’s just aware of them like he’s aware of how his crest splits when they transform. Shockwave gets to have all of his context as a gestalt and Blurr hates it.

The only one of them who gets to come out of this with total confidence in their memories and the motivations in those memories and it’s the prisoner who delights in having them dancing to his tune. Blurr can still feel that satisfaction and he knows _he knows_ that Shockwave planned for them to become gestalt.

They can’t tell anyone because that will destroy all trust in them.

Everything he thinks just runs into dead ends and memory and Blurr has to stop so he focuses on the physical again, where he’s been pacing and pacing and he’s not going anywhere just standing in his quarters and not recognizing them because Longarm Prime picked out decorations with him - not gifts that would have been fraternizing, but suggestions that of course Blurr had enjoyed taking - 

Every thought skitters away into hurt and there’s a fresh inquiry of concern from Cliffjumper and that’s where Blurr goes.

//

Cliffjumper’s home isn’t a home so much as it’s an armory and Blurr has to step lightly around secured weapons cabinets and chests and he finds Cliffjumper at a worktable with a disassembled laspistol and it’s not a very dangerous weapon, useless against any kind of armor really so - 

“It’s meant for organics and exposed circuitry,” Cliffjumper says without looking up. His hands are moving. “It scrambles circuitry, makes a mess out of almost any kind of organic. Fries their innards, makes a mess. Armor doesn’t really work against it either, if you’re close enough. This one’s called the Black Hand - that’s a translation of what its species called it. Using it in combat would get you rated for warcrimes.”

Now _that’s_ a concept. Blurr perches on another workbench and swings his legs a little and watches him work.

Cliffjumper isn’t angry like he wants to be, but angry like he’s been taught to be and Blurr knows he really needs a firing range and drone targets and total freedom but that could get him rated for instability again and they have to retain their rank and fix what Shockwave did.

“Who do you want to melt?” Blurr asks, because if you can’t act out you can dream.

“Take a guess,” Cliffjumper mutters darkly, and he puts the completed weapon down. “It wouldn’t even hurt them, just melt their plating a little and stun them.”

“Except on exposed circuitry and with enough time it would melt their plating through - “

“I’m not going to hurt anyone,” Cliffjumper says, a little too loudly.

For the first time Shockwave is _there_ and obviously he’s been listening because he asks: _Then which of us are you going to use that on_

“I never!” Cliffjumper shouts, on his feet, gun forgotten.

_Did I strike a nerve?_

Blurr slams into Cliffjumper and pins him to the floor and Cliffjumper’s shouts are incoherent, desperate. Somehow they both lose themselves, and it’s Shockwave who stands up, awkward in the small space.

It’s the second time he’s existed completely since they split his spark. Cliffjumper’s shouting is satisfying, and he carefully kneels, simply existing.

None of them want to come apart, now that they’re together. Shockwave looks at the gun, so small compared to Cliffjumper’s scale, and he picks it up with one claw, dangling it.

Cliffjumper, of course, didn’t have any plans or forethought for this. It was simply the correct weapon to clean and reassemble for his mood. Shockwave lifts it, studying it with his optic, then sets it back down exactly where it was.

Blurr’s pilfering through his memories, reading what he can. Shockwave laughs and lets him. Untangling everything he’s ever done, and his motivations will keep them busy for a long, long time.

Shockwave strokes imaginary claws over Blurr’s mental form, savoring - yes, even the burn as Cliffjumper tries to pull them apart. He is, for the moment, totally free of long-term plans. He exists in the now, with these two.

Blurr hisses denial, that he must have something planned for them, and Cliffjumper’s all fury and no thought and this close, this close they can’t think - not yet. So Shockwave lets the go, and Blurr lands on Cliffjumper.

“He still wants to frag us he wants to use us Cliffjumper - “

Blurr stops, staring down at the floor, feeling - yes. They can’t hide it at this proximity.

“ - Cliffjumper that doesn’t help!”

//


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this was worth the wait, class has been murder. But hey, we're over 3k and the plot is well underway!

Cliffjumper shoves Blurr off of him, too angry and flustered to even _try_ to address how he's running a charge.

He doesn't say anything, using his bench as leverage to get back to his pedes, his anger overwhelming. He thinks of Shockwave, clenches his fists, looks at the gun on the bench. He's so angry it feels like it echoes through him - 

Wait.

Why wasn't Shockwave angry?

Gestalts - if they're following established patterns, if what he learned wasn't made up, if Shockwave hasn't broken the mold, _again_ \- should share emotions, have at least some kind of answering sympathetic empathy, and Shockwave _doesn't._

Curiosity arrives, an amused patience - Shockwave loves to watch him think, and he grits his dentae. They aren’t here for his amusement!

“Why aren’t you angry,” Cliffjumper asks, because it’s easier to say it than it is to think it. And because Blurr needs to understand, he’s got the rest of Shockwave’s spark and what if that somehow divided his emotions?

_Should I be angry?_

“Yes of course!” Blurr says, picking up the argument instantly. “Your spark was cut in half you’re not ever going to be free again and the Decepticons lost Megatron’s in solitary nothing went right for you!”

 _We’ve had our setbacks_ and now they can both feel it. He’s hiding something. _Already? You impress me._

Charge forgotten, anger focused - Cliffjumper looks at Blurr, who nods, and they move together, merging sparks so they can focus on getting this out of Shockwave. It’s a merge, but _not_ a forming up - this is about their control.

They’re intelligence agents. Finding secrets is what they _do._

Shockwave’s amusement (joy?) swirls around them, clouding their focus and generating charge - “Stop that!” - but it’s not hard, he’s not trying to keep this from them.

There are plans already in place for ensuring Megatron is freed. Cybertron was and has been the goal for millennia, and now that they are here - in force - it’s the plan Blurr interrupted, that the team on Earth foiled and then stalled: summon the Decepticons to Cybertron using the space-bridges. And oh, isn’t it convenient that Cliffjumper knows the codes and Blurr has the speed to get them to the precise place they need to be?

Anger ignites, fury and sick rage because now they can both see: Shockwave expects them to take part in this.

And why wouldn’t he? They’re outcasts, distrusted by their faction. They were barely trusted before, disliked enough to be forced into union with the enemy, and now?

Shockwave wants to chide them both for being so short-sighted: there is no possible way they will ever regain that trust. He is a curse upon them - unless, of course, they take advantage of him and join the Decepticons.

Cliffjumper catches Blurr’s arms, preventing him from running. This is too important to flee from, they have to process it and understand it now.

“I hate him, but he’s right,” Cliffjumper hisses. “Longarm compromised us.”

“We took Shockwave in to undo the damage Longarm did he was supposed to fix things not - “ Blurr stops as Shockwave laughs at them.

“Shut up!”

Did they know? Did they _know_ that their choices were being made for them? The answer is of course they did, but who wants to admit that their own faction - their own allies - reject them? That they hold just enough rope to hang themselves, and someone somewhere must have expected this.

Forced to confront it, with Shockwave thinking ahead of them, showing them - he’s been Longarm for so long that he _sounds_ like their trusted boss - 

_We have to speed this up ahead of their calculations, or we’ll all be imprisoned and studied. Cliffjumper, you must have been aware of the circumstances behind the creation of those Autobot fliers. The Magnus outwitted us without cheating._

Shockwave always leaks in, before the image can settle. Cliffjumper winces, because Blurr is already in his memories, looking and understanding and it’s everything they could have guessed at before, because to win a war against Decepticons you have to play dirty, without morals.

It’s how they won, and Shockwave doesn’t shy from the accusation of foul play on his side, but, but - 

Are they _really_ comfortable being passive actors as Sentinel Magnus settles into the throne prepared for him, as other forces get what they want?

General Strika can rescue Megatron, yes, but what will happen if they’re forced to flee _again?_

If they must turn traitor, why not turn traitor for the most important reason of all?

They’ve been through one war. _This_ time they understand what it would mean to start one.

“Would we win?” Blurr asks, choice already made. “Tell me Shockwave would this really work?”

“It would,” Cliffjumper says, spark cold. “But only if we did more than use the codes. Optimus - “

_Already known to be our largest threat, if he cannot be convinced to join our cause. Megatron no longer underestimates him._

“Hostages won’t work he’s shown himself to be too rational for that he’s extremely lucky as well but his primary strength is in how he finds allies and coordinates them even if we surprise him he adapts almost instantly therefore I would be the best equipped to capture him.”

And he won’t go to the space bridge anyways. Cliffjumper frowns, not the biggest fan of how he’s left to figure out a convenient lie that will excuse his presence there.

But they’re already at the operational stage. Cliffjumper lets go of Blurr and doesn’t watch him go, instead turning to his armory.

Shockwave’s pleasure courses through him, and he growls, wordlessly accepting that _yes_ he has wanted this, and he’s excited for it.

“Stop gloating,” Cliffjumper mutters as he begins to arm himself.

//


	5. Chapter 5

The benefits to being trusted: “Optimus Prime can I talk to you it’s urgent we’ve extracted something from Shockwave it’s about Megatron - “

He doesn’t have to say anymore to get Optimus Prime to come with him, away from a conversation with Ratchet and Omega Supreme and Arcee.

He has to buy time for Cliffjumper to get out to the space bridge which means that he cannot compromise his cover or evade his supervision but moving quickly to warn Optimus Prime is understandable, even if it annoys the Stockades and the Council he’s breaking procedure in order to be effective.

Optimus Prime may hurry and be concerned and look so tired - natural of course his constant conflicts with Megatron have lent him the air of a soldier fresh from a battlefield and well Blurr understands _that_ not that he’s about to help - not yet not until it’s right to.

The point is Cliffjumper has plenty of time to prepare himself and update his codes and covertly make it to the space bridge if he’s moving according to schedule and Shockwave confirms it, chill in his spark as he reaches out to his severed half.

 _Now,_ Shockwave whispers, and Blurr doesn’t rush, doesn’t ruin the surprise because who’s going to warn Optimus Prime first? No, he waits until they’re done driving, plenty of time for Cliffjumper to talk to whoever’s listening on the Decepticon frequencies Blurr can feel Shockwave thinking and talking and it’s like a ghost whispering behind his audials - 

“Blurr?” Optimus says.

“Yes Optimus Prime?”

There’s an uncomfortable silence, which means of course that Optimus is attempting to figure out how to awkwardly offer comfort or pity or understanding and _really._

“I appreciate the sentiment Optimus Prime but this was a voluntary choice better to have Shockwave where we can see him in some ways he’s more dangerous than Megatron and we have to undo the damage he did as Longarm Prime and that means preventing this breakout not talking about what Shockwave did to me it’s in the past.”

_You lie so well._

It’s easy to think shut up and it’s easier to pull ahead of Optimus and get out of convenient verbal range they’re not close enough to use comms for anything more than professional business.

It will be easier if he strikes while Optimus Prime is in his root mode therefore he will wait.

//

“Frag’s sake, this isn’t a trap! Shockwave set this up, and if this were a lie the Autobots wouldn’t bother letting you through the ‘bridges! They’d just send through their own forces to kill you first!”

He’s already thinking of himself as separate from the Autobots.

Eight Decepticon faces look at him from the screen, each one uglier than the last. These are not the brightest of Megatron’s forces, just steadfast and loyal and good at surviving in hostile conditions.

Skeptical, naturally. Cliffjumper hasn’t bothered to cover or redo his Autobrand, assuming that it wouldn’t matter, but _of course it does._

“You could have gotten these frequencies from torturing Shockwave,” says one, and Cliffjumper slams a fist into the console. Optics narrow - he has their attention.

 _”Listen, you slag-sucking idiots!_ What have you got the lose? _Megatron is in the Stockades._ Either you come through and support Strika’s team as they break him out, and seize Cybertron in the process, or _you aren’t worthy of being Decepticons!”_

He doesn’t wait for an answer, and the Nexus begins to hum as it powers up.

Either Cybertron is about to have the entirety of the Decepticon warfleet on it, or he’s about to throw away his life for the sake of idiots.

//

The moment Optimus’ pedes touch solid ground, Blurr moves.

//

The first ships to emerge are the small ones, scout vessels crewed by duos and trios of close mechs. Willing sacrifices that send back trustworthy signals, and Cliffjumper can’t hide the mingled fear and awe from Shockwave - they’re massive.

The last time he saw them hanging over Iacon was at the titular battle, and this is somehow worse, because he can see the scars. Because he’s not standing in ranks, with new weapons at their backs. Because he can name each vessel - _Imperator. Galaxy Crusher. Fanged Justice. Blood. Nemesis._ \- and they are legends from another era.

He’s not old, not like some Autobots, but he’s old enough. Society’s changed since the war, made it a distant, fading memory for the sparklings to learn about at storytime, in history class.

Clouds of defensive drones spread out from some of the vessels as they glide, jamming communications and more as the bridge finally collapses in on itself.

That’s all of them. It’s a pale shadow of what the fleet once was, but even _one_ in the atmosphere would be enough for panic.

They’re _all_ here.

Cliffjumper gets hands on his weapons, drawing them as he walks away from the ‘bridge control. No one will come down to meet him, they’ll have their own plans to follow, but there has to be an Autobot response by now - 

There are the sirens. Severely belated thanks to Shockwave’s hackwork, and the only warning any Autobot will receive thanks to the drones in the air above.

“Hey!” comes a shout, and Cliffjumper grins a crooked grin.

“What’s going on - “

“Oh frag, frag! Look up!”

While the guards look up, Cliffjumper shoots them. One gets a hole in his shoulder, arm hitting the floor with a clattering while the other guard screams, face melting.

Cripple, neutralize, mentally scar so after repairs enemies won’t want to return to the battlefield. Don’t shoot to kill, tie up their resources with repair jobs and trauma recovery. Remember that Decepticons - the enemy - don’t have access to the All-Spark or steady energon farms, or Cybertron itself, their limited resources will be their undoing.

Autobots won’t waste time on trauma patients. Old habits die hard.

The next pair of guards don’t waste time with surprise or communication: they come out shooting and Cliffjumper dives and rolls into cover, a grenade leaving his hand in the same motion.

One makes it back behind the corner, and Cliffjumper charges, guns exchanged for semi-automatics. Precision is useless on the move, spraying with limited accuracy keeps enemies pinned.

There aren’t more than, oh, twenty mechs at the Nexus now. Maybe more if reinforcements are fast. He needs to get himself to the outer ring, out of the trapped corridors. He doesn’t have to lay sabotage, just survive and meet up with Blurr at the Stockades.

A ping at his comms, and he shuts that down. Even with Shockwave’s help he’s not risking vulnerability, and the ‘cons wouldn’t have his number yet.

His enemy sticks his head around the corner, screams and begins to fire as Cliffjumper passes.

Too late.

Leave their plating riddled with armor-piercing rounds, transform, _drive._

_I’ve never seen you this happy before._

“I’m not a fragging secretary,” Cliffjumper shouts above the noise of his engine - and Shockwave’s right, he hasn’t felt this good since the war ended.

There’s a sound and he recognizes this from Blurr’s memories - the walls are beginning to close in. He transforms, dragging one of his heaviest weapons out of his subspace. By the time he’s ready it’s almost too late - but the rocket launches and the simplest way out of a crusher trap is to destroy it.

No, the real problem is that someone’s at the controls and they’ve identified him as an enemy. He’s got to keep moving.

//


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise, trig didn't kill me! And neither did the migraines! I'm back with another chapter and some more plot - hopefully next chapter will be less action and more dialogue, but hey, stuff has to happen before Shockwave can kneel at Megatron's feet and Megatron can go "the frag happened to you"

Blurr isn’t waiting around: Optimus has been secured, guards have been secured, the Stockades themselves have been hacked and the minicons are too many to track down and secure so instead Blurr sets to freeing prisoners, cracking off stasis cuffs and chains and repeating himself for slow-witted idiots: “breakout!”

Megatron will be one of the last freed thanks to logistics but in the meantime there are a surprising amount of Decepticons and other criminals as well he shouldn’t free them all morally speaking but at this point chaos serves them all.

Lugnut is the first prisoner to follow him deeper into the prison instead of out.

_He’ll follow you all the way to Megatron and get in the way. Brute force won’t open our Lord’s prison cell._

Telling Lugnut to leave would be a fool’s errand however that kind of slavish loyalty can’t be broken so is there a way Blurr can use it, make him useful? Shockwave doesn’t think so but then what does Shockwave know, he looks down on everyone how did his arrogance not give him away, Longarm Prime had been kind and thoughtful, not this - 

Blurr diverts himself by ducking Blitzwing’s thrown punch and jumping back. “This is a breakout a rescue attempt it’s this way to Megatron’s cell are you going to help or are you just dead weight?”

“What is this?” It’s the blue face, and Blurr doesn’t want to waste time - 

_That one will listen to you. But only that one._

“I just told you a breakout attempt either help me open more cells or I’ll ignore you. I won’t repeat myself get moving.”

He’s off, ignoring the heavy sounds of Lugnut charging behind him, ignoring the useless words from Blitzwing’s faces he has too much to do before the minicons figure out how to restore order. He doesn’t spare words for more prisoners, even if he has to dodge their attacks because absolutely none of them are thinking they just see an Autobot sigil and attack he can’t really blame them but it’s annoying and - 

_Combaticons. Even missing a limb Bruticus will be devastating. Free Onslaught and leave the rest, he’ll open their cells._

It’s the most useful advice Shockwave’s given him yet and he follows it, briefly surprised by Onslaught’s nod - he returns that after a second, then moves on.

There’s only one combiner stored in the Stockades and beyond them are the solitary cells it’s profoundly idiotic prison design not that Blurr’s complaining given how convenient it is. If he’d been in charge Bruticus would have been scattered all over the prison and the solitary cells would be more isolated than this seriously one short corridor and then a row of sealed bulkheads is that all?

Inside is a poorly lit cell, more dark ambiance than useful surveillance and Blurr despises incompetence, it may be the one thing he has in common with Shockwave.

Megatron kneels in chains.

Blurr wants to turn and run and he wants to kneel all at once he draws a laspistol, sparing a glance for Megatron’s narrowed optics as he shoots the chains. More precise removal can wait when they need to _move._

He jinks to the side as Lugnut catches up with them.

“My Lord - !”

Megatron rises in a smooth motion, joints creaking audibly due to neglect.

“We need to escape, Lord Megatron, while we have the chance.” Blitzwing, the blue face. Blurr can’t seem to make himself leave, and knows it’s Shockwave’s fault.

“Escape is this way and you need to be ready to fight,” Blurr says, forcing the words out slowly before he turns and walks - walks! - away from the cell. He only speeds up when he hears those distinctive pedes moving behind him and the creaks of neglect, and once they’re moving in the right direction he lets himself go.

Cliffjumper needs his help and no matter what Shockwave feels, Megatron can take care of himself.

//

“I don’t need help!” Cliffjumper shouts across the room, as if he’s not busy with a minigun and a mass of targets. Blurr’s not listening, cutting off the squawk of a surprised guard by jamming one of his knives into their vocalizer.

Yes yes he knows he’s interrupting Cliffjumper’s fun, he knows he has better places to be, but these are live rounds and while Cliffjumper’s good backup is better.

They don’t even need to be at the Nexus anyways, he saw the Fleet in the air on his run over, more than enough Decepticon firepower to guarantee control over Iacon once you factor in Megatron’s freedom the lack of Omega Sentinels and the surprise attack.

They’re done if they want to be and Blurr rubs drying energon off of his armor as he slows to a stop.

“I was supposed to meet up with you,” Cliffjumper says, not angrily as he crosses the room, stepping around downed frames.

“I work fast we need to make a decision on if we’re rejoining Megatron now or cleaning up first or crippling some more of Cybertron’s defenses.”

Shockwave wants Megatron, they _know_ that - 

“Optimus Prime,” Cliffjumper says firmly. “We were supposed to secure him, and with his luck someone will have freed him by now.”

“Yes,” Blurr says, and he picks up Cliffjumper before he takes off. No time to waste.

//

Luckily for them, Optimus Prime is still stashed where Blurr left him: in a supply closet with multiple stasis cuffs on his arms and attached at the knee joints.

“Shut up we’re not going to Megatron yet,” Blurr snaps as he begins to extricate Optimus from the closet. Cliffjumper helps, and soon they’ve got him hefted between the two of them.

_Where else would you go?_

“Are you always this stupid or is it just because you can’t think around Megatron? We’re going to one of those warships first so if there’s a bombardment we’re not caught in it. No of course you didn’t notice that we’re still wearing Autobot sigils we’re still in danger you aft.”

_Oh._

“...You really do think with your panels when it comes to Megatron,” Cliffjumper says in wonder. He’s taking two steps for every one of Blurr’s, but their pace is steady.

 _Lord Megatron_ is _impressive._

They share a look, irritation and a surprise urge to form up - but no. They won’t let Shockwave lead now, not when their lives are in danger.

“Which one of those would listen to us if we contacted them?” Cliffjumper asks, looking up - out of the Stockades, the sky is a glorious purple, filled with ships.

To his optics, all of them look equally huge and spiky - and when it comes to Decepticons, the biggest mechs aren’t always the leaders. He’s assuming that goes for the ships as well, and - yes. A pulse of recognition from Shockwave, and they both nod.

_The Nemesis._

//


End file.
